Marketing Your Work

Wilson Mountain Sketch, 9x12, pastel - $100 - SOLD

Imagine a beet farmer with lots of beets to sell but no truck to get them to the grocery store. It's like a painter without marketing skills. Marketing is the engine that sells the beets - or paintings - and puts money in the bank. It allows you to keep on doing what you love best.

It's tough being a self-employed painter in a free-market economy. There's enough to being a painter without having to market the work, too. Just think of all the details that occupy your day in the studio - ordering paints and canvas, wrestling with composition, color and brush-handling, framing the work. I sometimes yearn for the days of Soviet-style, state-supported arts in which an artist could just make paintings and not have to worry about marketing it. (Of course, then I'd have other problems to worry about, such as whether I'd have to give up painting for a few years to go work on a collective farm, harvesting beets.)

In the old days, you got a gallery to do your marketing, and it wasn't much. They had a mailing list and perhaps placed an ad in some glossy collectors' magazine. You might also have hung out a shingle advertising your studio. But today, marketing - and the economy - has changed. We haven't totally abandoned mailing lists, magazine ads and shingles, but now we also have Facebook, Twitter, eBay and Google Adwords. Figuring out how to market turnips is a lot harder now, especially with so many ways to do so and with many of them, such as Facebook and Twitter, still unproven.

So what do you do? As you've always done - establish a marketing budget that fits your business projections. In that budget, be mostly conservative in your marketing venues, but leave yourself a little room for new marketing opportunities. Something may come along with a lot of buzz attached to it, and you may want to try it.

And, please, let me know if you find one that really works!

Painting Competitions

Snoopy Rock sketch, 5x7 pastel - $60 - contact Michael

It seems that everyone is hosting some sort of national painting competition these days. Application is typically by slide or digital image. But do you really want to try for an award based on a 3-second glimpse of your lovingly-crafted work?

When you don't win or even make the "finalist" cut, don't be sad. The initial cut was made by viewing the images in 3 to 5 seconds. (You'd need to have been weaned on MTV to have the neural circuitry to make that kind of rapid-fire judgement.) The next cut, of course, takes longer, but if your work doesn't hook the jury in that first 3 seconds - or if they blinked or reached for a cup of coffee - you are out of the game.

To hook the jury, the piece can't be subtle. In my own experience as juror and judge, I know that work with impact will cause me to look longer. Strong value contrast, stunning color and dynamic design will likely send your work to the "possibles" pile. Anything less than that will be rejected. This includes moodier pieces that work their magic with subtle shifts in value or muted colors. Weighing judgement on them takes more time and consideration, a luxury the jury doesn't have when viewing a thousand slides.

If you're a painter who paints such pieces, carefully consider your chances. If getting into shows and winning awards, neither of which translates necessarily into sales and satisfaction, are important to you, you may want to enter smaller shows, local or regional. These typically have fewer entries, which might mean more stage time. Or, you might want to enter shows more appropriate to your style. Loose, impressionistic plein air work will not do well in a competition that historically favors tight, realistic work.

Tubac Workshop

Tubac sketch, 9x12, pastel

I thought I'd mention a three-day workshop I'm teaching in the southern part of Arizona this winter. I'll be teaching in historic Tubac January 19-21 (Wednesday-Friday). We still have openings left, so if you're interested, contact Kathy Reyes at gallery@losreyes.com. Price of the workshop is only $180. This plein air workshop is suitable for all levels and all media. I'll be working in oil and pastel.

Tubac, which is only about 20 miles from Nogales, Mexico, was founded in 1752. Today, it's a thriving art colony with the Tubac Presidio Historic State Park at its center. It's also home to the Tumacacori Mission. Old Town has lots of shops and galleries and outdoor merchants. There's a lot of great painting here, so I hope you'll join me.

For much more on Tubac, please visit http://www.tubacaz.com/abouttubac.asp.

More Large-Format Oil

We had beautiful weather again yesterday - it hit nearly 70 by mid-afternoon - so I went out again at the same time to work on my big Munds Mountain painting. I didn't show you my setup, so here it is.

I'm using a Beauport easel, translated from the Chinese per Dan Corey's instructions so it works properly. On the crossbars is an Artwork Essentials EasyL "Classic." The 12x16 "Classic" not only serves as a big palette for the easel, but it's also a good pochade box when used with a tripod. What I like about it in this case is that the lid also serves as a sunshade. A bungee cord keeps it securely in place. By the way, I found that the peg holes in the Beauport legs are excellent brush holders - just watch out for them when you bend over! (In the second photo you can see a #12 flat jutting out.)

I spent another two hours on the piece. I continued to make adjustments in value and temperature relationships and tried to improve the foreground patterning so it makes a better lead-in for the eye. I finished by adding a few foreground details in the way of a couple of dead snags and some bunch grasses. I held back doing more because I wasn't sure where to go next. Today, it's in the studio, and now that we have some clouds moving in, I'll spend some time indoors pondering it before making my next move. That's what I love about these multi-session plein air pieces - you don't have to rush.

Munds Mountain - 24x20, Work-in-Progress, Stage 2

In case you missed my announcement, I've been invited to lead a New Zealand workshop March 7-14, 2012. (That's 16 months from now.) Cost is about $2500, not including air fare. The price includes accomodations, most meals and transportation to painting spots. We'll also have land and sea sightseeing trips plus some great dining! I need 16-20 people. If you're interested, e-mail me at mcj.painter@gmail.com.

Large-Format Oil - and a New Zealand Workshop!

Before I show you my latest large-format painting, I want to share some exciting news with you. I've been invited to teach a workshop on New Zealand's Kowhai Coast March 7-14, 2012. (That is not next year, but 16 months from now.) Although this will be a painting retreat-style workshop, I'll be giving plenty of demonstrations and critiques. There'll also be land and sea excurisons and some fine dining to look forward to. The workshop is being coordinated by artists Adele Earnshaw, a native New Zealander who grew up in the area and who will be our guide, and Joe Garcia.

The price of the workshop will be around $2500, not including air fare. If I can get 16-20 people interested, we can make this trip happen. Non-painters are welcome to join us. If you'd like more information, please send me an e-mail (mcj.painter@gmail.com), and I will forward details to you.

I am very excited about this workshop and I hope you'll join me. Please let me know by Sunday if you have interest.

Yesterday I went out to one of my favorite painting spots to start a 24x30 oil. This is a scene I have painted countless times and have gotten to be pretty familiar with. I feel that familiarity with a scene can help when it comes to large pieces that will require a significant investment of time, energy and materials. Although I've done this scene in small formats, I've always wanted to get deeper into it and show some of the finer details in it.

I initially toned the canvas with a mixture of acrylic yellow ochre and magenta, biased toward the red. A good deal of the red still shows through, especially in the shadowed mountains and the still-unpainted red rim at the bottom of the painting.

Munds Mountain View, 24x30, oil - Work-in-Progress